Very random, this, but does anyone watch Masterchef? I'm still recovering from the shock horror of seeing Jackie from last year eating scallops and sea bass at the dinner on Tuesday. We were both utterly outraged. Just us? Thought so.

I haven't watched it yet, I keep forgetting it's on and my bf HATES it, it's the only thing he won't let me watch when he's there. I'm shocked though, I would have probably had a shout at the TV as well. In fact, I'll probably watch it on iplayer and have a shout, I get irrationally annoyed watching TV at the best of times.

Apparently she's now surprised at how she's being called out on it. I'm sorry, but if you're trying to promote your career by being vegetarian and running vegetarian suppoer clubs, people will be surprised when they see you on prime time national television eating fish.

The first dish she cooked last year contained prawns, yet she continued to refer to herself as vegetarian not pescetarian. She then went on to cook and taste countless meat based dishes. I don't see how anyone who has made the decision to become vegetarian could do this, wouldn't it have been an opportunity to show just how good vegetarian and vegan food can be?

She cooked lots of meat and fish dishes last year and probably tasted them but never ate either herself through choice. Sometimes she didn't have a choice about what to cook, but when she did her food was veggie and often vegan. I mean who the hell serves tempeh to John and Greg? I wouldn't do it but I admired her for getting so far on a mainstream cookery show, and assumed that the meat and fish stuff was a means to an end to getting her a career in vegetarian food. It does actually seem to have done that which is why I was so surprised to see her order the fish. She says she eats it once or twice a year "on special occasions". Sigh.

I remember she made the most incredible looking main course, I think it was the episode where she made the starter so spicy that it gave Gregg hiccups. They were blown away by it, I don't usually get excited about what they cook on TV, but I was genuinely salivating. She was really annoying though.

Masterchef has been going in the UK for decades (anyone else remember Loyd Grossman back in the day?), so there must have been dozens of series by now & seriously unlikely you could find them online.

Ok, counting from the first series in 1990 would suggest being on s19 of the main show right now. A cursory Google, however, would appear to suggest that The Internets believe it to be s16 (I'm guessing they're not counting 2005-7 when it was titled 'Masterchef Goes Large.') Some of these bits of internet are confused with last year's series though. While I'm not downloading torrents at work to check, I don't find it unlikely at all that they could be found online with little trouble.

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"I will take a drugged, sex-crazed, punk rock commie over Mrs. Thatch any day of the week" - Vantine

I watched the episode where they cooked in the Gordon Ramsey restaurant and I just kept thinking why spend so long on prep? The little cubes of jelly, the delicate care of the baby vegetables. My jaw was on the floor when that guy twirled the sugar and added edible gold leaf. So pretty but more a work of art. I guess I don't understand that style of cooking :(